New Delhi : Union Education Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank after charing a high-level meeting today said that both students’ and teachers’ safety, security, and future are supremely important on holding the Class 12 board exams amid pandemic

He said,” I’m confident we will be able to arrive at an informed, collaborative decision regarding the Class 12th board exams and remove the uncertainty among student’s and parent’s minds by informing them of our final decision at the earliest.”

“In the meeting, some states have asked for more time & we’ve told them to give their suggestions by May 25. Keeping in mind safety & future of students, we’ll take further decision on June 1. We’ll give minimum of 15 days to students,” said Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

After the deliberations, Nishank said, “The meeting was extremely fruitful as we received immensely valuable suggestions. I have requested the state governments to send me their detailed suggestions by May 25. I am confident we will be able to arrive at an informed, collaborative decision regarding the exams and remove the uncertainty among student’s and parent’s minds by informing them of our final decision at the earliest.” “I want to reiterate that both students’ and teachers’ safety, security, and future are supremely important to us,” he added.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the over two-hour meeting. Union ministers Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar and Sanjay Dhotre were among those who attended the meeting, besides education ministers and secretaries of several states and union territories.

The discussions were held around two themes, i.e, board exams to be conducted for Class XII by the Central Board of Secondary Education and other State Boards and the All-India Entrance examinations for various higher education institutions and professional courses. Various options regarding the methodology, process, duration and timings of the exams were discussed. While a broad consensus was there, however, it was decided that States and UTs may like to further examine the matter and send their feedback in writing by the 25th of May,2021.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister of Jharkhand and Goa, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and State Education Ministers, State Education Secretaries, Chairpersons of Examination Boards , Administrators of Union territories, Secretaries of Higher Education Department and School Education Department of Government of India, Chairman CBSE, UGC and AICTE, DG NTA and several other officials.

While summing up, Union Defence Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh thanked all the participants for putting forth their positive suggestions on the proposals for conducting examinations. He requested States and UTs to submit other suggestions, if any, to the Ministry of Education by this Tuesday i.e. 25th May. The Ministry will consider all those suggestions and take a final decision soon, he added. He reiterated that the priority of the Government is to conduct all the examinations in a safe and secure environment

“As envisioned by the Hon’ble PM, the meeting was extremely fruitful as we received immensely valuable suggestions. I have requested the State Governments to send me their detailed suggestions by 25th May,”Pokhriyal further said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has called a crucial meeting on Sunday to decide on pending Class 12 board exams and subsequent entrance examinations that were postponed due to the second wave of COVID-19, Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said.

The high-level meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani as well as Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar will be among those present. Education ministers and secretaries of all states and union territories have been asked to attend the meeting.

Pokhriyal also sought inputs from all the stakeholders – students, parents, teachers and others – through social media.